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TTC, GO glitches plague weary commuters

Fall kicks off with Presto problems and construction and repair delays.

TTC worker Mike Tesone repairs the concrete lining on the Yonge Line tunnel in this photo from 2007. The TTC now hopes to have the work done sometime in 2014. (Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Thousands of Toronto-area GO and TTC commuters, already vexed by overcrowding and construction, are confronting more delays and technical gaffes this fall.

Waterfront Toronto has confirmed that utility work along Queens Quay has delayed the reconstruction of streetcar tracks there. Riders on the 509 and 510 cars, who have been riding shuttle buses since August 2012, were expecting to have their service restored by the end of the year.

Now it will probably be June or July before the streetcars are running again, said David Kusturin, chief operating officer for Waterfront Toronto, the agency in charge of a massive makeover of Queens Quay.

The streetcar loop at Spadina and Queens Quay, which was to have been rebuilt by November, is also out of commission until February. The up-side is that changes to the construction schedule mean that loop won’t need to be closed a second time as originally planned.

The track work is part of a $110 million transformation of Queens Quay into a waterfront promenade. The plan calls for the east and west streetcar lanes both to run on the south side of the street, making room for cars on the north side, along with wide granite sidewalks and a bike path.

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Kusturin says the new streetscape will be complete by the Pan Am Games in 2015, and he’s asking commuters to be patient.

“What we’re trying to do is keep the overall project on schedule. We realize there’s an impact not having the streetcar going. The bus isn’t as convenient. But we think it would have a bigger impact if we don’t get this job done by 2015. We don’t want to inconvenience the public for longer than that. It’s a three-year project. We want to make sure it remains a three-year project,” he said.

On Sept. 19, the automatic reload feature failed on 580 cards. That meant some users, whose cards are programmed to automatically top up their account once they hit a minimum balance, were surprised to find they didn’t have enough fare to ride the train or bus.

A technical change at Moneris, the company that processes Presto credit and debit payments, is being blamed for the problem. Most of those autoload settings were reinstated within 24 hours, said spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins.

Last week, 3,400 Presto users had their credit card payments duplicated, a problem involving a different company, Accenture. The problem was detected immediately and customers were reimbursed within a few days. Many didn’t even know they’d been double-charged, said Aikins.

“This is a rare occurrence and we are working with the vendor to improve controls,” she said in an email.

Aikins downplayed the technical issues as affecting only .05 per cent of the 830,000 cardholders.

“We are processing nearly 10 million fare payments a month. ... On average, we process over 450,000 transactions every weekday…. From time to time it is expected there may be some minor technical issues. We have a system in place to constantly monitor and quickly identify and fix any issues that arise,” she said.

Finally, TTC riders on the Yonge subway line north of Eglinton are expected to learn soon when early closures for tunnel liner repairs will end. The subway has been closing early at 12:30 a.m. nightly except Saturdays since mid-2008, on a repair project that’s been in progress since 2005.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross says transit officials hope to identify a time in 2014 when the work might finally be complete. About 4,000 of 10,000 concrete tunnel lining sections have been inspected, and 850 of the 950 identified for repair have been completed, he said.

“The process is not a speedy one, as many of the liners are covered in material, including asbestos, which needs to be removed before a liner can be inspected. Add to that the time it takes for crews to get to the work location, set up, clean up, and return to the yard. As we examine liners, we’re identifying more and more that need to be repaired, mostly due to water damage,” he said.

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